Quote:
Originally Posted by Gasman
I have one question. What brand tires do you have, the factory Hankook or another brand. The reason I ask is that it was my car Baby Benz did the swap on. I was able to put a 3 mm spacer between the spring perch and side wall. The only difference I can figure is the tires are different. I also have changed the springs to the euro brabus springs, but this should not make any difference since I used the same Blisten struts. We drove the car around and put it through some hard turns and bumps and had not trouble. The tires never touched. I also plan to shave off the edge of the spring perch till it is flush with the spring. This will gain another 2mm min. I plan to order my new 17 rims for the rear this week and will us a 10 or 20mm spacer on rear along with a wider tire.
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Thanks for the information! They are stock Hankooks.
Where did you get or where would I find a 3mm spacer for the spring perch? Do you think the 3mm spacer is necessary? I suspect if I ended up going with 205/40/17s on the front then that 3mm spacer would definitely be necessary.
I thought about the shaving of the perch, but then I thought warranty void and the replacement cost of these Brabus shocks are ridiculous. I guess if the 5mm wheel shim (spacer) isn't enough then I could go that route or get a 10mm shim.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Padawan
I'm probably one of the only people here who prefers the 15's front and back. To me, the 17's just look too large for the tiny Fortwo, and they don't leave much of a sidewall to absorb impacts or cushion the ride. Different strokes for different folks.
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Those will be my winter wheels, since they don't make snow tires for the 17s.
I actually like the ride a lot better in my Brabus than I do in my Passion, however I think that has to do with the elimination of the seesaw effect from the Passion suspension more than tires.
15s are great though if you want a touring feel. You can have a much higher side walls on than the stock 15" tires to give it an even more of a touring ride quality. Not to mention the tire lasting longer, better gas mileage and less chance of wheel damage. I like the quad 15s, too. I actually like the 17s rear and 15s front look, but this is really just me procrastinating from doing what I should be doing in life.
The 17s you can put wider tires and taller side walls on the rear. For the 17s front you are more limited with sidewall height.
Probably 205/40/17 would be ideal for the fronts and 225-245 wide on the rear, but for now I'll see how the Smart handles with the stock tires 215/35/17. It's clear though that it's better to have a more narrow tire in the front than the rear, but changing tires is on the bottom of my to-do list.
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